More people could be selling mobiles for improved banking technology

Mobile banking has emerged as a potential incentive for consumers to sell used phones in favour of a brand new model.

Research by comScore has found that there has been a 15.4 per cent rise in the number of people in Europe using their handset to access financial information since August 2010.

Indeed, the surge in numbers is even greater among smartphone owners, with this demographic reporting an increase of 40 per cent in mobile bankers over the same period.

"Consumers want to be able to access information on the go at any time and with mobile banking becoming more user-friendly through apps and mobile optimised pages, people are gradually becoming accustomed to it," explained Jeremy Copp, vice-president for mobile at comScore Europe.

Some 20 million people in the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy used a mobile to enter a bank account in March.

ABI Research last week concluded that the number of people using mobile broadband is also set to rise, predicting the industry will be worth $36 billion (£21.9 billion) by 2016.